We invite researchers, designers, and practitioners to join the workshop (Re-)thinking Empathy’s Materiality in HCI at CHI 2026. This workshop critically examines empathy as both a tool in research and design practices and as a quality embedded in technologies such as conversational agents, XR, and Large Language Models.

Through a sociomaterial lens, we explore empathy across three dimensions: technologies and their affordances, actors and social practice, and context, situatedness, and intentionality. Our goal is to disentangle diverse definitions, applications, and risks of empathy, and collaboratively develop a taxonomy to guide its responsible and meaningful use in HCI.

We welcome position papers, design cases, and provocations (2–4 pages, ACM single-column format) addressing these themes or presenting empirical, theoretical, or design perspectives on empathy in HCI. We particularly welcome perspectives from domains where empathetic design can advance research and practice, recognizing that applying an empathy-centric lens can benefit work across application areas such as healthcare interventions, educational technologies, human-robot interaction, assistive systems, or human-AI collaboration. Accepted authors will contribute to structured discussions and co-design activities during the workshop.

Submit via EasyChair [Link Coming Soon] by February 12, 2026 AoE.

Selection is based on originality, quality, relevance, and potential to stimulate discussion. Submissions will be juried by the organizing team. At least one author per accepted submission must attend the workshop in-person.

For inquiries, contact Sophia Ppali (s.ppali [AT] cyens.org.cy) or Alice Vitali (A.Vitali [AT] tudelft.nl).

Submission Guidelines

We welcome the following types of submissions along with a brief description of the submission type. Each submission should be 2-4 pages in length, excluding references, and using ACM single-column format. The Latex and MS Word templates can be found here.

• Research Paper:  novel research on Empathy-Centric Design (i.e., empathy in HCI and related fields)
• Case study: research based on real-world experiences on Empathy-Centric Design topics
• Provocation or a Position Paper: inspiring, controversial, provoking thoughts on Empathy-Centric Design
• System Demonstration: prototypes and new technology concepts that will be tested during the workshop (including a description of what attendees will experience through the demos) related to Empathy-Centric Design topics
• Pictorials: visual components (e.g., diagrams, sketches, illustrations, renderings, photographs, annotated photographs, and collages) accompanying text to convey new ideas and contribute to Empathy-Centric Design

Submissions should be submitted via Easychair (link) and be anonymized according to the CHI anonymization policy.

• Submissions should include a manuscript (excluding references) using the ACM Master Article Submission Template (single column). Here you find the templates for LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf.
• Again: manuscripts need to be anonymized according to the CHI anonymization policy.
• If you use LaTeX, please use: documentclass [manuscript, review, anonymous] {acmart}

Submissions will be juried by the organization team based on novelty, provocativeness, quality, and relevance to the workshop (i.e., related to topics of Empathy-Centric Design and the relevant theme).